Competitiveness and innovation in the pulquera industry, an economic analysis

Maguey is closely related to the marginalized areas of Mexico and lacks innovation processes; it mainly produces in Oaxaca for Mezcal and the production of pulque in Hidalgo and Tlaxcala. The objective of this study was to financially assess the pulque industry through its differentiation, generating a mead production project for agave syrup with respect to a project that only produces pulque considering the price volatility in states of Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and Oaxaca. The hypothesis is that uncertainty creates opportunities that add value and benefit the producer. Method: Maguey pulquero prices and yields from 2005 to 2018 were obtained from SIAP. Production costs and investments were obtained from the Xamini S.P.R. of R. I. and were considered for the three states. The possibility of innovating pulque process from a traditional point of view through the Net Present Value (NPV) was analyzed; however, since it does not consider the price volatility, an evaluation was used using real options with binomial trees and Black-Scholes formulas with expansion scenarios to two hectares. Results: Hidalgo had, on average, the best yields, and which positions him as the main producer of this drink; however, its trend was downward. Oaxaca was the entity with the highest critical value (1.771) because it presented greater price volatility; therefore, the risk in investment is higher. Through the traditional evaluation, the projects in the pulque industry of Hidalgo and Tlaxcala were accepted with values ​​greater than unity, not so for Oaxaca. With the evaluation of real options, once it is innovated, the project increased six times more for Hidalgo and Tlaxcala increased 37 times more. The numbers turned positive for Oaxaca, but it did not recover the investment initially; a similar situation occurs when the option is given to expanding the innovation to two hectares. With the evaluation of real options, once it is innovated, the project increased six times more for Hidalgo and Tlaxcala increased 37 times more, for Oaxaca the Discussion: For a differentiated product such as agave syrup, the risk increases, but also the possibilities of increasing your income and being competitive in the market, which happens when the product is associated with the current needs of the consumer. This applies to Hidalgo and Tlaxcala, however, for Oaxaca, the project to differentiate the pulque industry is not very viable, since its production is irrelevant compared to mezcal. This study confirmed the hypothesis, when the product is differentiated in its production process, benefits increase, despite the uncertainty.

A Tutorial for Modeling Real Options Lattices from Project Cash Flows

ABSTRACT Context: several methods for evaluating real options have been extensively studied and published. But recombining binomial trees, known as lattices, are perhaps one of the most practical and intuitive approaches to model uncertainty and price project managerial flexibilities for real options applications. Although the Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979) lattice model is simple to implement for financial options, modeling real options lattices requires a different approach such as the one proposed by Copeland and Antikarov (2001), which considers project cash flows as dividends in the lattice model. Objective: in this tutorial, we propose a code in an open-source software with intuitive guidelines to help researchers and practitioners model real options lattices from project cash flows. Method: our code considers the correct project’s volatility estimation, dividend yield modeling, and lattice building. Results: the results show how real options can affect the value of projects. Conclusions: as a contribution, this tutorial provides a simple mechanism for analyzing investment opportunities in projects that have uncertainty and flexibility.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE ONE PROBABILITY MAKES IN THE CONVERGENCE OF BINOMIAL TREES

In the [Formula: see text]-period Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (CRR) model, we achieve smooth convergence of European vanilla options to their Black–Scholes limits simply by altering the probability at one node, in fact, at the preterminal node between the closest neighbors of the strike in the terminal layer. For barrier options, we do even better, obtaining order [Formula: see text] convergence by altering the probability just at the node nearest the barrier, but only the first time it is hit. First-order smooth convergence for vanilla options was already achieved in Tian’s flexible model but here we show how second order smooth convergence can be achieved by changing one probability, leading to convergence of order [Formula: see text] with Richardson extrapolation. We illustrate our results with examples and provide numerical evidence of our results.

Joshi’s Split Tree for Option Pricing

In a thorough study of binomial trees, Joshi introduced the split tree as a two-phase binomial tree designed to minimize oscillations, and demonstrated empirically its outstanding performance when applied to pricing American put options. Here we introduce a “flexible” version of Joshi’s tree, and develop the corresponding convergence theory in the European case: we find a closed form formula for the coefficients of 1/n and 1/n3/2 in the expansion of the error. Then we define several optimized versions of the tree, and find closed form formulae for the parameters of these optimal variants. In a numerical study, we found that in the American case, an optimized variant of the tree significantly improved the performance of Joshi’s original split tree.

Forest of Stochastic Trees: A Method for Valuing Multiple Exercise Options

We present the Forest of Stochastic Trees (FOST) method for pricing multiple exercise options by simulation. The proposed method uses stochastic trees in place of binomial trees in the Forest of Trees algorithm originally proposed to value swing options, hence extending that method to allow for a multi-dimensional underlying process. The FOST can also be viewed as extending the stochastic tree method for valuing (single exercise) American-style options to multiple exercise options. The proposed valuation method results in positively- and negatively-biased estimators for the true option value. We prove the sign of the estimator bias and show that these estimators are consistent for the true option value. This method is of particular use in cases where there is potentially a large number of assets underlying the contract and/or the underlying price process depends on multiple risk factors. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the method.

Valuation of an investment project in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry

<p>In this paper, the evaluation of the investment project in research and development for the innovation and of great impact in the pharmaceutical industry is presented. The project evaluation is done through an American type real call option, based on binomial trees incorporating the expected volatility of the expected cash flows in order to determine the benefit of postponing the project three years, providing flexibility to investors in their decision making. Besides, in the valuation of a real option associated with the project, fuzzy sets theory is incorporated in the process of assigning possibilities to the branches of a tree. The value of the American type real call option to postpone the project are between 24.83 % and 51.22% of the investment, and the value of real option, using fuzzy logic is between 9.91% and 23.13% of the investment in a pessimistic scenario, and of the 10.04% and 39.08% of investment in an optimistic scenario, and for a experts scenario the option premium is between 10.00% and 26.91% of the investment, these are better results.</p>